‘A Small Light’ revisits Frank family, Holocaust from new perspective

A program that looks back at World War II and the Holocaust is part of this week’s focus. National Geographic launches a new limited series on May 1 called “A Small Light” that follows Miep Gies (Bel Powley) and her husband Jan (Joe Cole), who were critical in the hiding of the Frank family from the Nazis.

REVIEW: ‘A Small Light’ offers new take on Holocaust experience

The show also stars Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank, Amira Casar as Edith Frank, Billie Boullet as Anne Frank and Ashley Brooke as Margot Frank.

Co-host Bruce Miller has an interview with Powley and Cole, who talk about taking on the roles and how the themes translate to modern times.

But before that: May the 4th be with you! As always, May 4 is the unofficial holiday dedicated to the “Star Wars” franchise.

Co-hosts Miller and Terry Lipshetz talk about the classic movies and new TV shows, which include the recent end of the third season of “The Mandalorian” and the second season of “The Bad Batch” plus the upcoming “Ahsoka” series. 

They also discuss the three new movies that were recently announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 in London by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. James Mangold, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy were selected to direct the films.

There weren’t many details, but Mangold’s film will look at the early years of the Jedi. Filoni’s movie is expected to tie together the various Disney+ series he’s involved with and Obaid-Chinoy’s movie will feature Daisy Ridley, who returns to the role of Rey from the sequel trilogy.

Stars Wars & Lucasfilm Rumors

In the episode we briefly discuss rumors and speculation about the future of shows and movies from Lucasfilm, which is owned by Disney. Further details to read and watch:

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV. I’m Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee Enterprises and the co-host of the program, a Padawan, if you will, to Bruce Miller, Jedi Master of entertainment journalism and editor of the Sioux City Journal. Bruce, it’s a little early, but May the Fourth be with you!

You should have said Yoda, because, you know, I’m that old. I had it in the script. I was going to call you Yoda, but I didn’t want you to feel that way. I am so Yoda. It’s ridiculous. That’s it’s is apt and it’s fitting and it’s me. Plus, if I were collecting anything, it would be Yoda. Got to love Yoda.

Always one of my favorite characters. And he didn’t show up right away. He wasn’t in the first one. The second one? Yeah. Yeah. And I remember now. Okay, so this. This shows you how old I am when they did a big reveal on Yoda for Empire Strikes Back. It was a special press kit that was just about Yoda, and it had a picture and I mean, it was quite the big deal.

I remember getting it in the mail and it’s like, Oh, what have we got here? This is really great. But I remember back with Star Wars, we didn’t know what it was. We had no clue. You know, they talked about serials, they talked about Westerns. They talked about all these things. But when until you saw Star Wars, you weren’t really sure what this thing was.

And I went to a screening of Star Wars back in. Yes, 1977. And I was unsure the place was packed. And I remember a woman in the in the audience screaming out, Ooh, that Wookie. He’s really cute. And so that’s what I remember about the first time. I also remember that the vehicles didn’t look like they had wheels or they touched to the ground.

I thought that was really cool. But it did feel like you were dropped into a world that you had no idea what was going on. It’s really amazing when you look back at the Times. I mean, today movies are so overboard with CGI and animation and green screens and everything. The fact that they were able to do a space Western because that’s really what it was, you know, you equated it to a Western, but even George Lucas thought of it as a space weren’t Western.

And it’s amazing that they were able to do what they were able to do back in 1977. When was the last time you’ve seen the original one? A couple of years, probably. You know, it’s one of those things that it shows up on TNT all the time. Or my daughter, who’s a really So I’ve got twin girls, but one of them is just hardcore Star Wars like I am.

So she’ll have it on from time to time. So I’ll sit down and watch a little bits of it. But what disappoints me though, these days is they effectively retired the original cuts at the movies and they went to the special editions from the 1990s. But even though those were cleaned up, you still have those elements from the original.

Yeah, that the sets are kind of wonky I think when you’re running down the hallway and you think, I think I’ve seen that hallway, it looks very familiar. Well it probably was right when we had it here with a symphony underneath it where they did a live the live score and it’s very fascinating. But it was an older version.

So you got a chance to kind of delight in in those kind of simpler things. And I think it works better. I don’t think you should have messed with that stuff. I thought you should have left it alone because it is a piece of its time, you know? But hey, if you’re George Lucas, you do what you want.

You can you can do that. Absolutely. So it’s, you know, with the I guess, the unofficial holiday, May the fourth with Star Wars. Just thought we would talk a little bit. There’s there is some news kind of out there with Star Wars. So we just wrapped the third season of The Mandalorian. We do have the new show, Ahsoka coming up in August.

We also wrapped season two, the bad batch, around the same time as Mando. There’s another series called The Acolyte, which is due sometime next year. It takes place in what’s called the High Republic era, which is is leading into that prequel trilogy that George did in the early turn of the century.

And there’s some other things kind of coming along, too. But we also had the Andor series last fall, which did very well, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was kind of mixed reception on that. So there’s there’s a lot going on. But they just had the Star Wars celebration in Europe a couple of weeks ago in London. And Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced three new films.

One is going to star Daisy Ridley as Rey. So she’s going to reprise her role that she brought forth in the three most recent films from that new trilogy. There’s going to be one that takes place in The New Republic, which is post Return of the Jedi. But before the the Rey version comes up. So this is basically taking the the shows that we see on Disney Plus now, and they’re going to somehow intersect into some sort of film.

And then there’s going to be another film that’s going to look at the Dawn of the Jedi in the New Republic. So that’s kind of what’s that’s what’s on the horizon. There’s been some speculation I don’t know how much you follow on this, that Disney isn’t particularly happy with the direction of Star Wars because the idea originally was they bought it.

They want movies coming out left and right. Some of those did very well. Some of them didn’t sit so well with the fans. And there’s been some rumors out there in the Star Wars universe that maybe Kathleen Kennedy’s job is is on the line. If she doesn’t produce another Star Wars movie. Her contract, I guess, is up in 2024 and allegedly an ultimate aim was place that they need to have a movie out by 2025.

So it’s an interesting thing. You’ve got this huge series, this huge enterprise. I mean, it’s a it’s a behemoth of when you compare it with all these other tent pole type of, you know, DC Marvel and all these that are continuously putting out films and Star Wars, they kind of sputtered a little bit, but they’re still doing very well with the TV programs, it seems.

Yeah, I think there are too many things out there. I really do. We waited so long just to get Star Wars films that now they have a glut of them. I, I don’t know that that’s in their own best interest is I know they want money. I know they’re there. There’s really we’ve got to get more money out of this.

How can we get more money out of this? Let’s do this. Let’s do that. Come on, we’ll have it. Yeah, yeah, let’s do TV. Let’s do a podcast. Or how about, you know, and it’s just this whole range of stuff and there is a limit to it because if you are new to any kind of franchise, you may not go in, you may not be interested in that because it’s too much to learn.

I know that was the case with Marvel. People thought that they couldn’t get into that world if they hadn’t started from the beginning and they need to be a little better about their standalone Star Wars films. And I really think that’s where you could fall into Quentin Tarantino’s The People who are kind of a marquee name, and let’s see what they would do with it.

It doesn’t necessarily have to follow everything, or it could just be people who were around during the same era but aren’t caught up with this this fighting good against evil. Maybe there were people who didn’t pay attention at all in Star Wars land to what was going on. You know, was there a PTA meeting going on somewhere? Could that have sparked something?

Who knows? And then, you know, they never really do want to toy with anything beyond a PG 13. Why can’t there be an R-rated Star Wars film? Yeah, that would be an interesting one. I mean, you can you can maybe get to I mean, it is it’s space war. So you could take up the violence level a little bit and maybe and they did it with with the comic book movies.

You do have a couple that have gone beyond PG. PG 13, right? It’s possible. But you see, it’s Disney. So there are kind of those those boundaries that are put into play that I think hinder what they can do. So I. Hey, Kathleen, I’m with you. You just sit there and say, you know what, We can’t do everything, but let’s try something and let it be standalone.

It doesn’t shouldn’t have to be part of the trilogy for anything that, you know, the how I feel about those I do not want to have to worry about. I’ve seen too I die and I don’t get the third one. That’s ridiculous. But you can easily be in that world and still still show us what’s what’s going on.

I’m with you with the standalone movies. I thought that Rogue One is perhaps one of the best movies, Star Wars movies of all time. And it’s because, you know, we knew what was going to happen, because we knew that it led up to the original 1977 Star Wars with the Death Star. So we knew going in the movie is basically about them stealing the plans to the Death Star.

It was a great movie from start to finish and it’s kind of followed through now with Andor the series where, you know, you can only do a couple of seasons of that because eventually there’s an end point, right? So I think they really did a great job with that. I’m kind of hopeful that with James Mangold, maybe that’s that director that they’re bringing in, like you suggest, because he’s doing the new Indiana Jones movie, The of Destiny.

But he’s done Ford versus Ferrari. He did Logan, He did The Wolverine. He did the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. So he’s done a lot of different films and he is an A-list director, so they can bring him. He’s got that star power, and it’s a little bit different than even when they had Ron Howard, who of course, is a giant in directing because he was brought in to rescue the the Han Solo movie, which was kind of fallen apart.

So, you know, here they’re going to let him do it from the scratch. I agree to that. I don’t want a trilogy every single time, especially after the newer trilogy, which I thought was a bit of a disaster because it was so disjointed. Right, Right. Well, if you look back at the original, the whatever the you call those first three films, George Lucas handed the reins over to Lawrence Kasdan after the the first one and said, You write this thing, let’s see what’s going on here.

And I think those new ideas are what helped keep it fresh and keep it going instead of this huge book that somebody has to go, Well, wait a minute now, according to chapter 33 here, you’re not supposed to do this. It’s chaos. And I think that’s why I’ve turned off from for Marvel. I really don’t want to have to try and remember something that happened in or films prior to this one.

Yeah, I think Star Trek had a little problem with that as well, where they’re, you know, they’re trying to many worlds. And now where are they? I really don’t know where Remember the the kind of reboot with Chris Pine? Is that going anywhere? Is that going to be something more or are we going back and looking at old characters like Picard?

You know, what is that? And I think it becomes a thing when money people are making decisions and their demanding things by a certain time because they’ve got to meet a budget or we need to make so much money by this date that it kind of spoils the creativity of the whole thing. Well, that’s kind of the thought, too, with where, you know, if those rumors are true, that that Kathleen Kennedy’s job may hinge on on a film.

Is it or bringing back more films, is that you’ve got the money people. It isn’t just about the storytelling when when Lucasfilm was that standalone company because even if you go back to that original trilogy, the first Star Wars movie, if that thing bombed, it ended. You didn’t need to wait for two more movies because it had a beginning, a middle and an end.

And at that end, you could have been like, okay, we’re good. I don’t need to see anything ever again. But they came back with Empire and then return. And I think the other piece of it too, is even though he did hand it off to other directors to kind of tell a story, he was still part of the storytelling process.

So it was his concept where he worked with other writers and directors on the finer points, which I think in comparison to the new trilogy, J.J. Abrams was there. I know he was the executive producer on the second one, but he kind of stepped way too far away. And the movie went in a totally different direction. And then he had to come back to kind of rescue the third one, and it just turned into, I guess, a bit of a hot mess.

But yeah, you know, Disney, there were rumors that they were going to do an Indiana Jones series on Disney Plus and that has kind of been put on hold. And Willow, I didn’t even get a chance to see this Willow series on Disney Plus. And apparently season two was canceled because they’re like going all in with the Lucasfilm stuff back into Star Wars.

And because that is that is the franchise out of Lucasfilm. So it’ll be interesting to see where that goes. The interesting selection and directors of these movies is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. She is a two time Oscar winner because she won Oscars for documentaries, but she’s attached to the film. A little bit of an unknown, but I guess her star has been on the rise because she’s done some directing work on the Mrs. Marvel series.

Thoughts on her documentaries and short subjects are kind of the gateway to getting into bigger pictures. So she was probably tested through these kinds of things. She has a very female perspective, a feminist perspective that might help play well with something that’s seen as a very kind of boys club. And it gives an opportunity for the Star Wars universe to kind of crack open to other stories that could be told, because I think we’ve kind of worn out our welcome with some of these father son things.

I don’t think we need to go into that a little more. But she might bring us a whole new a whole new world of of opportunity. And it would be interesting to see what happens. You know, I want to see what are what people are doing in other parts of that universe. And I don’t know that we’ve necessarily seen that they’re also caught up with this rebel forces kind of thing.

And really, though there have to be it’s like today there are people that you can’t ask anything about the news because they don’t watch the news. They don’t listen to the news, they don’t read the news. And those are people with a story to to tell. And how do they do it? I think sometimes we get a little too caught up in the mainstream of what people are talking about or what influencers are telling us.

We should talk about that. We don’t realize that there’s a whole subset of people out there talking about nothing that relates to that. So this thing is one of those things. I think he made an interesting point to about a different perspective, because for me, as somebody 47 year old man who grew up on Star Wars when I was a kid, the boys like Star Wars and most of the girls like something completely different.

You know, you had some some girls liked it, but it was a boy’s club. And I think they really tried to expand it and attract a much wider audience. Now, I think to my daughter, who’s 12, who absolutely loves Star Wars, she wants to watch the shows every single week. And if you ask her who her favorite characters are, it’s Rey, it’s Ahsoka Tano.

It’s these newer characters that they introduced that have expanded the universe to just more than boys and men. And the Jedi can be a girl, you know, A Jedi can be a woman. Look at how animation was largely seen as, you know, female driven. It always has to have a heroine who falls in love and gets out of her situation.

And then they realized, Wait a minute, we’ve got some boys out there that might be interested in watching animation. And they did do a shift and there were some male kind of dummy and Star Wars was pushed them. They were the ones who said, Get over there, come on, you got to do some male animated films. And we’re seeing them now.

So I think same thing could happen with Star Wars. So once again, may the force be with you, Bruce, but we’ll turn our attention now to a much more serious job and anybody. I do. Yeah. You also on April 20th, one two on people at 420. Yeah we’re not not in Wisconsin. I’m based in Wisconsin. That stuff’s not that’s not going to talk that way, right?

Yeah, not here. Not at our borders. That is correct. No, but we’re we’re going to shift over to a little bit more serious topic now and one based in actual reality coming back from science fiction into history. A slight bit of research. Is that sound like enough? No, sir. But there have been Holocaust films since the early 1940s, 1940 was the first time they ever mentioned a concentration camp in a film.

Since that time there has been a Holocaust related film. Every year. It’s interesting to see that that’s that’s lasting like that, but it’s one of those things that you need to remind people because otherwise they’re going to say it didn’t happen. And I think a lot of times you’ll see in the documentary categories of the Academy Awards, there will be something about someone.

Now that generation is dying out. There aren’t many more Holocaust survivors around who can remember what went on or what happened. But what we’re finding now is that people are kind of stretching their their boundaries of what stories they already know. And one of those ones is a diary man. Frank, That was a huge, huge, huge book. And it was taught in schools.

I don’t know if it still is because I don’t know if it’s on a list somewhere. And then they say we can’t teach that one in schools. But it was what a girl viewed the Holocaust situation like. She was hidden in an attic over her father’s business. And they couldn’t leave. They couldn’t go anywhere. And they had their own kind of world, if you will, hoping that somebody they could get out because the Nazis wanted to do something with them, i.e. they wanted to kill them.

And so we saw that perspective on the Anne Frank story. We saw her perspective because her father saved the diaries and brought them and said, you know, is this something we could publish? Is there something here so that people know what went on in our world? And now there is a new limited series called A Small Light, which focuses on Miep Gies.

Yes. Miep was a secretary of Otto Frank, who was the one who helped him during all of this. She, he said, would you help me get things to my family? Can you be there for us? And will you promise not to tell anybody? In retrospect, meet said, You know, I didn’t do anything. It was a small light that I was able to turn on in a dark room and it what she tells us is that there are things we can do, things that maybe we should be looking at now in our own world, where we can make a difference in somebody’s life.

And we see this with bullying in schools. We see this with loudmouth politicians who are shouting each other down and for no good reason. They’re they’re sideswiped by people who never asked for this kind of attention. And it becomes a very volatile situation that we don’t need to live in. And I think what this limited series tells us is that there are little things we can do along the way that can make somebody else’s life a little easier.

And why are we doing that? Why am I standing by and not saying, you know what, you’re a bully and you need to stop this right now? I always had parents who would stop me and they would say, You are not doing that. We do not do those kinds of things. You are not going to bully somebody. But today it seems like we’re a parentless society where nobody tells the people who are in authority or power, you can’t do that.

You can’t treat people like they’re somehow lesser than you. You can’t make fun of them because why? What are you gaining by that? You’re doing nothing. So this is this miniseries here at Roundabout Way. This was me on a soapbox. Did you see that? Dare you to just get the idea that picked up on it. The series lets us know that there are little things we can do, and I think it reminds us that we don’t have to be some Schindler’s List rescuer kind of person.

We don’t need to be that guy who runs in, saves a bunch of people, and then you’re considered, Yeah, that’s what we need to do. It can be something as simple as maybe talking to somebody else, maybe comforting someone during a tough situation. Maybe it’s bringing food to somebody. You know, it’s so, so simple. And this is a very slow kind of building Mini-Series I’m not saying it’s a slow miniseries because it’s not, but you see how she grows, how meat grows in the process of all of this.

I think it’s fascinating. It’s one of the best things that we’ve seen on TV this year. And it starts May 1st, I believe it is is the first first two episodes, and it’s eight episodes in all. I got a chance to talk to Bell Powley, who plays Miep Gies, and Joe Cole, who plays her husband, Jan. For them, they were you know, they weren’t filled in on what their story was until they started researching it.

And interestingly enough, and you’ll hear this is that they did not realize that John didn’t talk about it. He really did not want people to know his part because he didn’t think it was that important. And Miep didn’t write a book until many, many years later talking about what she did in all of this. So it’s a fascinating, fascinating story.

I think you’ll be really taken in by it. And you’ll also see how contempt jury they are. You know, it’s not like the when we see a film that’s set in another era, you go, oh, they’re old timey people and they just do old timey things, right? And they wear old timey clothes. And these are like so contemporary.

You think, I think I could hang with these people. I think these are people that I would like to be around. And that’s where sometimes when they do do films about these things, they tend to take away that kind of humanness and they want to set them up on a pedestal and make them something other than real people.

And this is one that shows you the real people behind the story. All right. So let’s go to that interview and then we’ll come back and wrap up the show during this. When did you guys say, could I do what they did? Was there a point in when in the making of this where you thought, do I have what it takes to do what these two did to hide people, to kind of divert people?

I think that’s what’s important about the show. Hopefully it’s going to make a lot of people think, could I do what they did? Because it’s about two very ordinary people. It’s not big sweeping historical statement or like larger than life characters. These are literally just two young people who are going about their lives. You ended up doing really, really extraordinary thing, and they have the same attributes that loads of young people have.

I mean, they were newly married. They love going out dancing like she was a big party girl and then their lives were turned upside down when they made this really heroic decision to have hired these eight people. So hopefully it will make lots of viewers think, would I be able to see this Is your answer? Yes. Or is it?

I really would. It’s hard to. That’s such a hard question to answer because it’s so late. You just sound like such an arrogant, provocative. So, yeah, I mean, I think what they did was so extraordinary and so incredible. You know, I, you know, thankfully will never be put in that position, you know? But what one kind of a role models for you.

But, you know, one incredible thing they did is I see today that there are parallels because, you know, and you go, well, why am I not stepping out of my comfort zone and just saying something to people, say, you know, you’re wrong. Yeah. But it’s also, you know, the show’s called a small light because, I mean, famous quote, anyone, no matter who you are, can turn on a small light in a dark room so anybody can do a little something for somebody.

So I’d like to think I could definitely do a little something for somebody. You know. And what they did was was a little something. Somebody turned out to be a huge, huge thing. And they represent a huge number of people also doing that all over all over Europe. You know, they weren’t the only ones. I remember seeing another movie about this, and I think I did interview me to really?

Really. Yeah. And I did. Really? Yes. Yeah. It was a TV movie that they had done, and I think Mary Steenburgen played her. Yeah. And I don’t remember her being as playful as you are in this. Well, obviously, it’s in Tony and Joan’s take on her and that and that writing of her. But I read her book and Frank remembered a few times that was kind of my main source of research.

And her voice really does come out in that book and she does talk like you get the sense that she was quite cheeky and playful and she talks about how much she loves going out dancing and partying with her friends and how she found her husband so attractive. And, you know, the funny kind of conversations she had with Ann.

So and then obviously that filtered through Joan Rita, our writer’s voice. She very much has those sentiments herself and then filtered through mine. Our take on her is that But I do believe that she was right. That was their relationship a true love thing, or did it grow into a love? It’s interesting question, isn’t it? I feel that was true.

A true love. Yeah. Because because they there was this huge barriers in that way. You know, y’all was married previously me did was wasn’t married at 20 sort of into her mid twenties was read at that time and sort of spoke about how she could have gotten her brother come out and she could have got a man who would that and talks about not wanting family and doing things that, you know, possibly do anything in a very different way to how they would have done things in those in those times.

There’s a there’s a there’s a process of how how you live your life. You have kids early. You get married, you stay at home. So she’s doing things very differently. And John was previously married. So I think that I think definitely that it’s more romantic because they really wanted to make this work. And and he had to divorce his partner and all the rest of it.

It’s like it’s a social faux pas. Those things. Did they do all those things in the bathtub? Because I thought, Oh, that’s really cool. I mean, I don’t know. I know they used to they used to to get away from everybody. They’d go like that. They said that that’s a great thing. I think it’s a huge, huge idea.

Kids were running the bathroom and Susanna direct and like one of the first conversations I have with her is that she really wanted to make this relationship, even though it’s a relationship in the forties feel real. Like we wanted to have those small moments of like them chatting together in the bath or like him asleep in bed and like seeing her get ready for bed and like all of the things that make a relationship feel like a tangible to an audience.

Sure. Because even though it’s in the forties, I feel that was know that a lot of guys don’t meet like they don’t and that was it was the prep for that And so and I think that’s the problem that too many people make is that or they think it’s a whole different era and it’s a whole different thing and it’s like they’re us.

Exactly. Yeah. What did you two learn from this? What did this teach you? I mean, this is a really good question. I mean, historically, it taught me no end to is, you know, just on on the surface, sort of people have become into this. The prelude is a sort of is the and frank story. Right. So everybody feels like they know I’m frank and they know the story.

And it was a young girl in the annex and the rest of it. But I feel like the reality is people don’t know the story. And how many episodes of you said you mention that you’ve seen two. Okay. So there’s so much that you’re going to hopefully learn and become aware of what was going on outside the annex, what was going on in the streets of Amsterdam.

Yeah. So on a kind of more superficial level, if you were like historical level, here’s a great deal for me. Just, just sort of kindness can, can win over everything and love and love, kindness and compassion, peace, bees, evil and beat hatred. And and just a reminder to everybody, the title of the show know every day you can fight.

You can show the other acts of kindness and they and they feed into one another throughout the day. Sure, you can do that. And so there’s always little things you can you can always look good, look for people who look to you. And yeah, I just learned so much about I’m like heroism and bravery on like a small scale from like to ordinary people.

There were so many I’ve even seen two episodes, but like, as you get like into the depths of this show, there was so many anecdotes and stories that we tell that you will watch and be like, That must be made of what these people did. And we had that literally. Every time we got a new script, we were like, Whoa, Tony, Joe, like, is this really do they actually do this?

Think the lengths that these people went to when they were literally just a secretary and a social worker and a young people was absolutely insane. So, yeah, I learned so much about being brave and also the amount that one human being can actually do so that that the best, most unfathomable stories are often the ones that are real.

Yeah. So we’ve got it. Well, this Tony’s made this up. This is too extravagant and sure and crazy. And it was always true. Thank you guys so much, love. It’s amazing. But nice to meet you in great fun and good luck with this. I hope it all turns out to be a huge hit. All right, Bruce, thank you for those interviews.

The show sounds fascinating. I think I’m definitely going to tune in and I think we’ve talked about this before. But, you know, for me personally, I have some Jewish heritage. So to these types of stories I really like to hear, you know, I enjoyed movies like Schindler’s List, but even when I was in college, I took the history of the Holocaust, which was just a fascinating semester, very depressing semester.

But one of the things they did is the professor, who was a retired rabbi, brought in a friend of his who was a Holocaust survivor. So he spoke to the experiences of what he had to go through, you know, in a concentration camp and showed the tattoo on his arm of, you know, how he was numbered. And one of a couple I’ve seen a couple of survivors in person.

And it’s sad because there’s really not many of them left. So it’s great that we can have stories like this, find ways to to have these stories, to share those experiences, but also, as you said, have a contemporary message as well. And I think there are applications that we can look at. Hopefully, we will never get to the point that our situation today is what it was back then.

I’ve been fortunate to interview a number of survivors and they all have a different story to tell, different things that happened to them, different kinds of people who came into their lives and were the ones who really helped them through a situation. There is a documentary called Nicky’s Family that you must see. It is so good. It’s about a British, you know, a businessman who helped these children get to safety during World War Two.

And he would find them places where he could live. They were they could live while they were separated from their parents or if something happened to their parents. And he he kind of he did this very clandestinely. He was a businessman. He was able to go over to places and he would create passports for them. He would do all this stuff.

And he helped kind of get these kids out. It was hundreds that he was able to help. And in this Nicky’s family, you must, must, must see it. You see him finally realizing the impact of his work. And they have this kind of, if you will, it’s a program, a this is your life kind of thing. And they’re introducing that he had done this and telling other people about it.

And again, he thought he really I don’t know what I did that was all that great. But when he realizes, you know, that somebody is making something out of this, they say, well, now the person next to you, she was one of the ones you helped, and the person next to her was somebody you helped. And before you knew it, it was everybody in that theater was somebody who he had helped and he had never met them.

Wow. And here was the chance to see how the man was really, really moved by this that, you know, you do things that you think are the right thing to do, but you never see the results of it. And it is so powerful. But that is one of my favorite films of that era. And it shows exactly what somebody did and how.

And children of those Holocaust survivors and how they wouldn’t have been around without him helping them out and by just doing what he thought was the right thing to do by creating passports. And you’ll see where he cut things out and pictures out and made these passports and got the papers they needed. It was fascinating that this man would do this kind of stuff, and he was knighted for his work.

But it’s just fun to see this old man just get really tickled by all these people. It’s a really cool thing. So that’s that’s what I think we’re our takeaway is that we can do something. Absolutely. So yeah, that’s definitely one I’ll put on my list to check out. Bruce What are we looking at in the coming weeks?

Well, you know, I also like talk about getting to talk to people that make a difference. David Rubenstein is a billionaire who’s done a lot of different things, but now he’s doing a TV series about American icons, things that are iconic in the United States. Now, I said right away, Well, Mount Rushmore, of course, isn’t that an icon?

And he said, well, maybe if we do another season there, it might be in there. But he looked at things like the Hollywood sign would be an icon. And it’s things that really immediately you identify and you can see something there, but it’s a fascinating discussion we have about what is iconic and what does somebody like him with all that money do?

And he does collect things. The Declaration of Independence, He has a couple of those. I think he has the papal papers. He he has a Magna Carta that things I’ve got lying around the house. I think they’re in the basement in my house somewhere. I just had to dig them out. But this is what he is interested in.

And he says he does it because he wants other people to be able to see these things. And so he loans them to libraries and museums so that then we can go there and say, you know what, people did do these things. They did exist. So his Magna Carta is like me owning a couple of copies of like a Mike Piazza baseball card.

Basically, if you kept it in good shape. Or is it near mint? One of those kind of things, you know, because that is there are some guys sitting in a room that says this is a seven. It’s just right. Somebody actually gets paid to do that. Yeah, but here’s the job I know.

And then, and so we have that coming up and then in a couple of weeks too, we’re going to look forward to the summer. The summer, it’s the big summer. We’re going to do it. So there are movies besides Indiana Jones coming out. That’s all. Barbie, Barbie, Barbie movie. We’ve got to get into that, man. Awesome. So we will come back in a couple of weeks and do that.

All right. Well, until then, thank you for listening. And we’ll be back soon with another episode of Streamed and Screened.